The Magic Cheese | страница 37

   The Villain saw the Wolf and quietly slipped down to the floor. Then he carefully moved backwards to the wall. As for the Wolf, he entered the house and started to examine the wolf’s skin that was hanging on the stand with great interest.

   “Look, this is my old suit; I’ve been looking for it everywhere! And what is this?” He cautiously touched a zipper.

   “I… I’ve changed it a little,” cringed the Villain, almost voiceless of fear. “H-m-m, I’ve improved it, so to say. It’s a zipper, very convenient, you may try it.”

   “A-ha,” nodded the Wolf. “And where did you get the head? Did you …borrow it as well?”

   “No, no, how could I?” The Villain was trying to please the Wolf. “It’s only a mask to a fancy dress, but a very real one, isn’t it? It looks so natural.”

   “More than natural,” growled the Wolf, remembering how he had been scared – only by a human in his own old suit! “But why do you have so few sheep?”

   “You see,” the Villain was trying to justify himself, “this is the second group, I have only started to gather them. As for the first one, they skipped away with your old lady. She turned out to be such a lively one, you know.”

   “Don’t you touch our old lady!” The Wolf chattered his teeth. “Get her back immediately!”

   “Don’t worry, I’ll return her at her best. We have exchanged places with your old lady, so to say. We’ll exchange one more time, I’ll go to my place, and she’ll return here, so you will get her safe and sound.”

   “Don’t even think of that, sweetie,” squeaked Cheese-eater spitefully. “You’ll stay here for the rest of your life and never see your home again.”

   Now it was Vovka’s turn to get scared. He wanted to go home so much! He had found the robber of the animals, got to know where the Cheese Fairy was, so it was time for him to come back to Mama. Vovka was hoping to return together with this pseudo-scientist, but now it looked like they were destined to stay here forever.

   Cheese-eater was happy. She was always happy when good gained a victory over evil. Though in fairy-tales it happened every day, she never grew tired of admiring a just ending. Usually she was looking at such stories from aside, but today she was participating in it herself. Like all little mice, Cheese-eater enjoyed the feeling of her own importance. She, Cheese-eater, a little thin-tailed mouse, was going to say the most important words to the Villain. She even became puffed up of her own significance.